Team "Im Osten geht die Sonne auf" wins 2nd place in competition at TU Dresden.
The motto "Fast, faster, Vibrio natriegens" formed the framework of this year's €99 bioreactor competition at TU Dresden, organized by the "NETZWERK BIOVERFAHRENSTECHNIK DRESDEN e.V." from 4 to 5 July 2019. In addition to eight other participants (TU Berlin, University of Stuttgart, HTW Dresden, TU Kaiserlautern, HS Mittweida, TU Braunschweig, Beuth HS Berlin, TU Dresden), a team called "Im Osten geht die Sonne auf" from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences took part for the first time and successfully took 2nd place with prize money of €400.
The task was to design and manufacture a bioreactor with a budget of just €99, with which the Vibrio natriegens organism could be fermented in pure culture with maximum biomass productivity (1st place), maximum biomass yield (2nd place) and the most technically innovative reactor concept (3rd place).
With a doubling time of at least 9.8 minutes, Vibrio natriegens shows more than twice the growth rate of the much more important bacterium E. coli. A high division rate is highly desirable for the investigation of genetic expression systems and their subsequent commercial use. Vibrio natriegens can be cultivated under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and shows very high substrate uptake rates with only low demands on the medium in terms of available carbon sources. Due to these impressive properties, Vibrio natriegens is increasingly becoming the focus of natural scientists. However, suitable bioreaction systems and a process control system that combines high productivity with a high yield must first be developed. To date, there is little literature data on the cultivation of Vibrio nat riegens.
The project team at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences took up this challenge in close cooperation between the microbiology and bioprocess engineering departments. Thanks to the diligent cooperation of Prof. Wiegert and Ms. Lorenz and their constant willingness to invest more time, it was possible to design a reactor with appropriate process control that showed the best biomass yield (best ratio of biomass obtained in relation to the raw material used).
Event Network Bioprocess Engineering
We would like to thank the organizer and all sponsors of the competition for the very successful setting.
